SABC at risk of collapse, warns parliamentary committee chair

CAPE TOWN — 8 September 2025

Parliament’s communications committee chairperson Khusela Sangoni Diko urgently warned about the SABC’s financial crisis, revealing it faces possible collapse amid declining funding and R70-million monthly losses.

Diko addressed the media in a briefing highlighting the public broadcaster’s unstable finances. She reported its outdated funding model and infrastructure cannot support future sustainability (committee statement).

The chairperson stressed the SABC is “burdened with unsustainable debt, outdated infrastructure that hasn’t been upgraded in decades and a broken funding mode rooted in an analogue era”. She warned TV licence revenues keep falling while free platforms like YouTube gain viewers.

State signal distributor Sentech revealed it loses over R70 million monthly subsidising SABC signals (Sentech statement). This compounds the broadcaster’s financial strain.

Diko criticised Communications Minister Solly Malatsi’s lack of action, saying: “It’s been more than six months that we agreed to stand down as a committee. This was to allow Minister Malatsi to deal with it, and nothing has been done. So, we’re urging the Minister to not hide behind bureaucratic red tape.”

Authorities requested Malatsi intervene urgently in the crisis (committee statement). No response from the minister was available at the time of publication.